Turbulent near-wake development behind a flat plate

An asymptotic analysis of the two-dimensional turbulent near-wake flow behi nd a Rat plate with sharp trailing edge has been formulated, The feature th at the near-wake, which is dominated by the mixing of the oncoming turbulen t boundary layers retains, to a large extent, the memory of the turbulent s tructure of the upstream boundary layer has been exploited to develop the a nalysis. This analysis leads to two regions of the near-wake flow (the inne r near-wake and the outer near-wake) for which the governing equations are derived. The matching conditions among these regions lead to a logarithmic variation in the normal direction in the overlapping region surrounding the inner near-wake. These features are validated by the available experimenta l data. Similarity solutions for the velocity distribution (which satisfy t he required matching conditions) in the inner near-wake and outer near-wake regions have been obtained by making the appropriate eddy-viscosity assump tions, Uniformly valid solutions for velocity distribution have been constr ucted for the near-wake. The solutions show good agreement with available e xperimental data. (C) Elsevier, Paris.